From Real Estate to Real Terror: Directors David Charbonier & Justin Powell Talk Real-Life Fears and Survival Horror

Image courtesy of AMC Networks

By Shannon McGrew

In the home invasion thriller, PUSH, Natalie Flores (Alicia Sanz), who is 8 months pregnant, is haunted by the memory of her late fiancé and is in desperate need of a new start. Determined to regain her sense of self, she moves to America and uses her real estate license to take on a challenging listing. 

However, she soon discovers her new beginning may be a deadly end when she catches the eye of a sadistic killer (Raúl Castillo) at her open house. After becoming stranded at the property, Natalie falls into premature labor, starting a physiological ticking clock as she must find a way to escape before she gives birth.

For the release of PUSH, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with co-directors David Charbonier and Justin Powell. During their chat, they discussed everything from the real-life moment that sparked the film's premise to crafting a relentless home invasion story where labor pains meet pure terror.

Thank you both so much for speaking with me today. Let’s kick things off with the story. What inspired it?

David Charbonier: Well, a real-life situation, but not as dangerous as [Laughs]. As most indie filmmakers will tell you, you have to have a real job to pay the bills. Mine was, and still kind of is, real estate photography. I was shooting this house one day in the Hills, and I had a dodgy signal, which made me feel very isolated. It was a little scary. I remember calling Justin and saying, "This would be a really good premise or set-up scenario for a movie," and that’s sort of how we got the idea. 

Justin Douglas Powell: Yeah, it was all inspired by David’s own horror story [Laughs]. When he told me about it, I thought, "This feels like it could actually be a really good story for us to build out," so we went for it. 

I love that the title of the movie is called PUSH because it can have many different meanings, whether it be the act of pushing during labor or finding the will to push through an impossible situation. Can you talk about choosing that title and the meaning behind it? 

Justin Douglas Powell: Honestly, you kind of hit the nail on the head [Laughs]. We aimed to create a work that could have multiple meanings and fit within the thriller genre. It was really hard to come to a decision about the title for this movie. We wrote [PUSH] a long time ago. It was one of the first scripts that we actually wrote as a team, and it was originally named Open House. Even when we shot it, it was named Open House. But that ended up feeling not as pertinent to what the story was really about. It also felt like if people search for it, they’re going to find actual open houses and not the movie, or they’d find some other open house movies that would muddle it. PUSH resonated with us because of all the multiple meanings, and we really thought that it spoke more to what it is on a thematic level. 

Image courtesy of AMC Network

Both Alicia and Raul carry this film on their shoulders and give fantastic performances. What was the casting process like? Did you write the characters with specific actors in mind? Was it more of an open casting process?

David Charbonier: Interestingly, this one, we did not have specific actors in mind. I know, like now, whenever we come up with even little concepts, we always think of maybe an actor that we could envision in the role, but this one we really didn’t. We have to give all the credit to our amazing casting director, Amy Lippens, who always comes through for us and always finds us the best people. She showed us Alicia Sanz's work, and we were so impressed. We’ve also been big fans of Raúl Castillo for a very long time. We mentioned him to her, but we really didn’t think we’d even have a chance of him being interested. We got really lucky with just the most amazing actors. Beyond Alicia and Raúl, everyone in the movie was so amazing. 

Justin Douglas Powell: I agree. We got super lucky and everyone was a joy to work with, also in addition to being super talented, which is just an added bonus. It was an incredible experience. This was also our first time working with adults, so we were a little nervous about jumping into that world in a way. We were so fortunate with our casting. 

With this being an indie film primarily contained in one location, that doesn’t mean it’s without its challenges. What were some of the biggest challenges you ran into with this film? 

David Charbonier: When we found the house, it had this incredible elevator, which later became a scene in the movie, but the script didn’t have any mention of an elevator. We were so in love with it that we wrote it into the script with a big sequence. But technically, especially with the no budget we were working with, it was very challenging. Everything was difficult about it. It took literally until the very last day of shooting that we were able to finish it and figure out some of the mechanics of how it was going to be shot. We were very happy that we were able to pull it off at the end. 

Justin Douglas Powell: David got to talk about the fun one [Laughs]. This one was a little more traumatic. PUSH is a small indie movie, and it was supposed to be even smaller than it ended up being. It was non-union, but on day three, it got flipped, which significantly increased the budget. Kudos to our producer because there was real talk about shutting it down. It wasn’t a little discussion; we kind of had to beg to keep it going. He believed in us enough to front more funds that really weren’t available, and thank goodness he did, or we wouldn’t be here with this movie to present to anyone. 

PUSH is now streaming on Shudder.